Marit's instincts are all to have this conversation via Telepathic Bond but it's a bit of an escalation, what with how it'd make it possible for them to plan to kill Galfrey on the spot, though he's not in fact planning to do that. "We'll have that discussion now, then," he says. "You can return all of my personal property in the meantime, do you require an itemized list? Three bags of holding in the Knight-Commander's quarters, and their contents, as well as the contents of the library there; the contents of the second-floor armory, eighty suits of enchanted plate mail, a hundred and twenty nine enchanted longbows, and sixty-one sets of enchanted barding with Endure Elements."

"- the latter are the loans? Those can be transferred to be in the Crusade's name not yours, as they should have been all along."

"Your Majesty, when I sought a loan on behalf of the Crusade I was unable to secure an interest rate less than eighteen percent, and when I sought one in my own name with undisclosed collateral I was offered four percent. I believed it to be in the Crusade's interests for me to guarantee the loans personally. You are welcome to get the loans transferred."

The good thing about talking about logistics is that now he's somewhat less blindingly furious, and somewhat more tired, and this is probably a better state of mind from which to plan their next moves.

"I'll entertain suggestions about where we ought to go tomorrow when we leave the Fane," he says. 

"The Order of the Godclaw would welcome many of those present at our fortresses on the south edge of the Wound."

This is in fact among the options Marit had been considering, albeit half out of spite, which is a bad emotion to use for decisionmaking. "I appreciate that," he says, "but have some reservations about the Order of the Godclaw, particularly about the worship of Asmodeus, and for different reasons about the worship of Iomedae."

Cansellarion looks pained.

"I don't want to go to the Hellknights," Seelah says. "They're Hellknights. That's a bad thing, much as I appreciate Regill's knowledge of all the regulations."

"I own some land near Absalom, though it would mean giving up on this crusade as a lost cause." Catherine volunteers, looking like she's maybe halfway there already.

"The Crusade is not a lost cause because the Queen and the Knight-Commander had one argument," Seelah says. "It's the whole world at stake! Surely we can talk things through and do something less ridiculous than this."

"If Galfrey refuses us access to any of the Mendevian forts - whether or not the Crusade as a whole is doomed, if we're not willing to work more closely with the Hellknights there might not be very much we can do."

"Lastwall has forts on the Worldwound," Seelah says. "Crusader's Fort takes anyone who wants to fight."

"Hmmm," says Daeran. "Anyone thinking of any flaws with that plan? Anyone? Anyone? I should've paid more attention in history class, really...who does this Lastwall work for?"

"Iomedae."

"Then our dear Knight-Commander might have some of the same objections to them that he just voiced to the Godclaw."

"The Knight-Commander feels hurt and betrayed, and so he's not thinking past how he's been wronged," says Ember. "I think that's not the right thing to do, but it does make a lot of sense."

"The Knight-Commander is standing in the doorway," Regill reminds them, "Aspex has our support but no rank, at present."

"I don't in fact feel betrayed," he says to Ember. "That would require having had the slightest trust in Galfrey to begin with."

"You feel betrayed," says Ember confidently. "Maybe not by Queen Galfrey."

The thing is, she's not wrong. Is it satisfying to watch Galfrey realize how her crusade is utterly doomed without him? Yes, absolutely. Did she come here intending to betray him, and instead destroy the things that matter to her - Mendev, the Crusade - while hardly landing a scratch on him at all? Yes. Is she the villain of this mess? Sure. It is satisfying, to see her fail in the thing she came here to do, because the thing she came here to do was to betray him and he does have the ordinary human habit of wanting revenge when people betray him.

And it's - not what matters. 

There's a sense in which this is entirely his mistake, because managing Galfrey was as much his job as fighting the horde of demons, and he hasn't, in fact, tried very hard to give her a way to save face. Of course, having tried to assassinate him, she has to double down on removing him. Iomedae would be trying to find some way to -

- Iomedae's way doesn't work -

This also does not seem to be working -

Has he attempted deescalating at all this evening - okay, yes, that's jumping to too much self-condemnation, he begged her not to do it and he dropped his sword and he agreed to arbitration he didn't fully trust, but - has he attempted deescalating like the fate of the world depends on it? 

He stands up. 

 "Your Majesty. Is there any hope that I could - address, or somehow assuage, your fears that brought us to this point? I cannot blame you, at all, for your paranoia. My experience operating here, too, has been one of finding cultists everywhere I look for them. And I've given you little opportunity to verify anything that I say, or that divinations say, about me. 

But - this is a mistake. Is there a way I can prove that to you?"

Galfrey goes from mostly-stressed-about-unexpected-accounting to mostly-suspicious. "It seems a little late for that."

"It does. I apologize; I should have thought of it a while ago. I think I spent enough time anticipating betrayal as to make it inevitable. I failed you, and I failed Mendev, because my job was not just to take back the Worldwound but to in so doing maintain your trust and your confidence. I will say in my defense that I did not realize I had lost them. But - I believe I am worthy of your trust, and I want to prove that to you.

Is there something you want to know about me?"

"- sure. Who are you, where are you from, where did you become one of the most dangerous people in this place."

"- I am afraid that you will not believe me, your Majesty."